Subject Change
by knowlee
Summary: After having numerous assassination attempts occur against them after becoming King and Queen of a United Fodlan and Almyra, both rulers are sick and tired of waiting around to get the one who is behind them all...and yet instead of taking care of the problem, they're talking about matchmaking? But don't be mistaken, they are focused.


**knowlee-** Funny story about how this idea came about...

I was going through some of my favorite scenes in movies, when I remembered that one scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier where Steve and Natasha are interrogating a man atop a roof. The actions they did in that scene immediately made me think of Claude and Byleth and I knew that they would've reacted that same way if they were in that situation. XD

So initially I was just going to have it deal with just them confronting the guy behind the assassination attempts, but then I remembered the subplot in that scene where Natasha was trying to set Steve up with someone and was giving him ideas of who to get with and then I decided to use that but with the pairing system the game gives you with the assignments, cooking and sharing dinners in order to increase support between units. Thus, this came into being.

I'm hoping I pulled it off well. Let me know if I didn't. I'm always looking to improve!

Now the next thing on my list is the next chapter for Drifting Souls. I'm still doing the outline for it and once I'm done with that, I'll start writing it! Until then!

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**A Fire Emblem Three Houses Fanfiction**

Subject Change

By: Knowlee Raven

* * *

_Do we really have time for this right now?_

Byleth, Queen of Fódlan and wife to Claude, the King of Almyra frowned as she grasped the stem of the wine glass with her fingers and brought the cup to her lips. Her aforementioned husband was sitting to her left and had been ignoring his own plate of food to give another look over the letter they just received.

It was an invitation to the wedding of two of her former students, and Claude's former classmates and retainer respectively, Marianne von Edmund and Hilda Valentine Goneril.

After Claude had commented on how he didn't see the two of them getting together coming at all, she made a statement about how she did. It was quite obvious to her what would happen eventually as she could see the chemistry forming between them when the two girls were younger. The bonds between the two only grew further as she assigned them to work together during the tasks they were given by Rhea as well as the group workshops that Byleth would give people each week to help improve their skills on the battlefield.

With that fact revealed, it, in turn, caused Claude to come upon a revelation.

Whomever Byleth had assigned as a pair during these assignments, be it battlefield or workshop, ultimately ended up getting together, either during the war or afterward. This knowledge led to Claude pestering his wife about her hidden matchmaking skills. She could practically hear the smirk in his voice as he started his teasing. "So, in a way, you actually set them up together by making them work as a team."

She inhaled deeply to try and squash down her panic. It wasn't that she was worried that he would think about her differently due to him realizing this, the ensuing panic was that he would inevitably put this information together and realize that she, in essence, had done the same exact thing between the two of them when she returned from her five year slumber. Her feelings towards him had begun to blossom shortly after their reunion and so when she saw what had transpired between the people that she had put together, she thought to try that with Claude to see if the same thing would occur. (Which it did, but at the time she didn't realize it had actually worked until the moment he confessed to her at the Goddess Tower after the battle with Nemesis.)

"I suppose so." She took another sip of her wine to catch her bearings before speaking again. "It wasn't really my intention, but that's certainly what happens when you are around each other a lot. You tend to grow closer to one another."

Despite her internal freak out over the topic of their conversation, she normally wouldn't mind having spiels like this with Claude as it helped bring some levity to their ever increasing work load as rulers of a new united continent (plus she absolutely loved having conversations with him in general). But any discussion in general wasn't really a good one to have at this current point in time. They had more pressing matters to attend to.

Such as the fact that Nader had just arrived a few moments ago with information regarding someone who had information about who was behind the last few rounds of assassination attempts on the both of them.

He had been in the middle of speaking to them about it when Claude found the invitation that led to their current subject change. He laughed at her nonchalant attitude towards what was revealed. "With everything you did to keep yourself busy back back then, I'm not surprised that being a matchmaker was one of them."

Byleth placed her cup back down onto the table before them. She forced a blank look to form on her face. Hopefully he wouldn't see through it and know she was lying through her teeth, but she had a sneaky feeling that despite her attempts, he would anyway. "It may have worked out for Marianne and Hilda in that sense by having them work together, but like I said, I didn't mean for it to work out that way."

Claude arched an eyebrow at her to emphasize that he didn't believe what she was saying. "I'm not so sure about that. Didn't Raphael and Bernadetta get together as well after you put them to work on improving their skills together? And now that I think about it..." He cupped his chin. "Wasn't it the same thing for Lorenz and Leonie?"

She tried to fight down the blush that had started to warm her cheeks. If he noticed it, she could play it off by just blaming the alcohol in her system. "Those were entirely coincidence, I assure you." She went to grab her glass again before she saw Claude's hand come into her view and block her from finishing her action.

"You're blushing, as well as avoiding the subject." Curse him. If she didn't love him so much, she would've knocked the smirk off his face. "That means I'm onto something, aren't I?"

Someone above apparently had mercy on her, because Nader chose that moment to speak up, breaking into their conversation. "I know I hate to interrupt this little quarrel you two lovebirds are having, but can we get back to what I was saying earlier? We have only one chance to get this guy before he leaves our area and I'd like to get a move on before he slips away."

Claude sighed and sent a look towards her that told her that he would bring this topic back up again later. Then, just as quickly as his last one came, his expression shifted into the one he made when he was coming up with one of his crazy plans. He turned his attention back towards his current retainer. "So the guy's located here in Derdriu, you say?" He removed his hand from hers and grabbed his own glass of wine and took a drink. "Alright, here's what we're going to do..."

* * *

They had him cornered.

The guy had fallen to the ground in his haste to try and get away from the two royals as they stalked him across the roof of the building he had been attempting to hide out in while he helped the man behind the attacks on them plan out the next one. Sure, they could've let Nader and their guard take care of the problem for them, but Claude had pointed out that with them being there instead of just sending someone else in their stead, it would send a stronger message to those who tried to harm them.

The message being that while they didn't mind people facing them through policy disputes, politics, and, hell, even through sparring if they felt like going that route, they would absolutely not stand for their lives being threatened through underhanded techniques. Both of them had experienced this too often (Claude more so than Byleth, but the attempts on her were made) and they knew that this needed to be shown now, especially when they knew in the future that there would be other royal family members whose lives would be at stake if this continued and they definitely wouldn't tolerate that happening.

But, just in case, Nader had some of his men come with them if the situation escalated quickly and they stood off the side as they watched their lieges deal with the man before them.

"Where's the guy who's been giving you gold to try and keep tabs on us?" The question came out of Claude's mouth as the deadly glare on his face deepened just as the man denied that he knew anything. Byleth kept her expression blank as she followed her husband's direction.

The man kept backing away from them, fear evident on his face. She was certain that he had expected the possibility of the guards finding him, but the actual King and Queen coming after him was probably no where on his map. That would explain the terrified body language.

Claude continued to pepper question after question at him as they grew closer. Eventually, the man ran out of roof and his back legs hit the ledge. He started to fall backwards until Claude reached out to grab his shirt, pulling him back onto the roof.

She had to give the guy some credit, he hadn't wet himself in terror at the glare that Claude had plastered on his face. It was a face that she never had directed towards her and she knew that he only had that look when he felt really angry. And considering that this man knew who was behind the attacks against him and her, his wife, she couldn't blame him for that having that emotion. Claude definitely held nothing back against those who threatened the people he cared about.

Surprise came over her though when she saw the man's mouth form into a smirk. Apparently he wasn't intimidated enough. "Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof?" Claude raised an eyebrow at his assumption. "Because, honestly, I don't think it's your style."

Claude glared hard at the man, trying to gauge the man's reaction before coming to a decision. His glare softened a bit and a small smile formed as he released his heavy handed grip on the man's shirt. He even went so far as to smooth out the creases he had made when he grabbed him. "You're right, it's not." His smile changed into a devious smirk. "It's hers."

Byleth would've laughed at the man's confused expression had it not been for the fact that she needed to react accordingly to what Claude had planned. He stepped to the side giving her a clear path to move forward and kick the man square in the chest, causing him trip over the barrier and fall off the roof, his scream echoing in the air around them.

She breathed out slowly. Well, that went well. Claude's voice pulled her out of thoughts. "Cyril and Lysithea? You put them together, too, right?"

Byleth looked at him, confused. Was he still going on about this? "You're asking me that now? Aren't we in the middle of something?"

He laughed softly and shrugged. "Just trying to pass the time."

She raised an eyebrow at him and would've interrogated him about his pushiness if it wasn't for Nader showing up at that exact moment with the man held tightly in the grasp of his wyvern. The man screamed again as he was unceremoniously dropped down onto the roof. Claude and Byleth stepped towards him.

Once they got close enough, the man held his hands up in surrender and began talking. "Alright, alright! It's a noble living in the former Adrestrian Empire territory that gave me the gold." The man took in a deep breath as he tried to calm down from the fear he felt when he was falling. "He felt upset that you managed to stop the attack here in Derdriu a few months back and wanted to try and take you out in a different way. He gave me more money through a messenger a few days ago to try again. It was going to take place a few days from now. But now, obviously, that won't be the case..."

Both royals glared down at the man for a few seconds more waiting to see if he was going to say anything else, before Claude motioned to Nader to take care of him. The retainer in question took some rope from the pack on his wyvern and moved to tie the man's hands together behind his back. Two guards came over and helped the man to his feet before they and Nader walked towards the door that led to the stairs leading down to the first floor.

Claude sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "Well, that's that I suppose. I'm still going to double check on what the guy said about another attack coming up. That needs to be figured out as soon as possible. Plus we still have to get that noble's name..."

Byleth could see his mind going back into planning mode and knew he would be stuck there for a while. Or at least, she hoped he would. But when he turned his attention back to her with smug look on his face, she had a feeling that he was about to tease her again. "You know, you also put us together on a bunch of assignments as well when you came back after the millennium festival?"

Immediately, her face got hot. She was really hoping that he dropped that. She turned to try and run away from the situation by walking towards the door, but didn't get very far before she felt his hand gently grip her arm, turning her back around towards him.

Byleth didn't look at him at first due to her embarrassment, but when she felt his lips press against her forehead in a reassuring manner, she dared to look up when he pulled away. His smile was breathtaking. "I'm not mad, you know? I think it's kind of sweet, actually. It just shows me that you had cared for me as much as I did at that moment. Back then, I felt thrilled when you would pair us together. It's nice to know that it was reciprocated."

She smiled as he wrapped an arm loosely around her back, holding her to his side. The two began walking towards the door, the guards parting to allow them to pass. She heard him laugh as they began climbing down the stairs. "I wonder how many other people you paired together will end up getting with each other."

She shrugged. "Not sure. It's not like I really planned on it happening. I may have a connection with the divine, but I don't think that's one of the powers associated with that."

A few months later, when they received another invitation in the post about Felix and Sylvain getting married, who coincidentally was another pair that Byleth had put together, Claude was beginning to think otherwise.


End file.
